SUSHI!

As I previously mentioned, I got Caton a Sushi Making Class from the Wine and Culinary Institute for Christmas. We went to said class on Saturday. It was AMAZING. First of all, we were definitely the only people there that we not married or at least not in a committed relationship. Secondly, I think we might have been the only people there just to have fun, learn a little, and eat a lot of sushi. Let me give a brief synapsis of the attendees. The 8 couples sitting on the inside of the room were regulars. It was obvious by their banter with the instructor and seeming expertise on gourmet cooking that they had taken one or two a bunch of classes at the institute before. The four couples at the table closest to the instructor and the couple directly across from us probably arrived at least a half hour early. They were clearly there to learn and wanted to know the exact science of sushi making (unfortunately for them, life is rarely an exact science). The couple diagonal from us was not really a couple at all but what I believe to be either a grandson and his grandmother or just two random people that happened to sign up for the class solo ( I forgot about them when I previously mentioned that everyone else was romantically involved). Either way, based on the age difference I am really hoping for my imagination's sake that they were not romantically involved. And then the couple sitting next to us seemed at first glance to be a slightly disheveled couple. I'm basing this completely on the fact that they were late and the husband was wearing windpants. As the class progress though, I learned through clever (or not so clever) eavesdropping that the wife was actually a food blogger and after artfully arranging her sushi onto her plate pulled out a photographer's camera to take photos of the food.

As we're boiling rice.
Caton: I feel like is a competition
Me: I know. And if it was a competition; I think we'd be winning

A few minutes later after the rice is boiled and we're putting it sheets to fan it out.

Caton: Their rice looks really good. It looks a lot fluffier than ours.
Me: Oh well, it's not a competition.

My favorite part of the whole sushi making experience was probably the couple across from us. They were one of the couples that really wanted a scientific process for the entire procedure.

Husband: Should we shut the burner off?
Wife: I don't know. Maybe we should
Instructor: I would let the water boil down some more. Till you can see the rice.
Husband: Ok. That is what I thought.
....
Husband: Ok. Should we shut the water off now?


Wife: Which way should I fan the rice? Left to right or right to left?
Husband: Fan it towards the lake.
Wife: Ok. Would that be north to south or east to west?

Caton and I did a fantastic job making sushi. It was a lot of fun and I feel like I really learned a lot. Aside from the fact that I spent a quarter of the class thinking that fanning was some sort of technical cooking term and not just exactly what it sounds like we managed to make it through.

Me: (taking the rice out of the pot we boiled it in and about to start pouring it onto a paper plate)
Caton: What are you doing? You're supposed to dump the rice on the baking sheet right there.
Me: Oh. I thought it was supposed to go on the paper plate.
Caton: No, that is for fanning it.
Me: (looks around at other couples) Oh! Gotcha!
 for some reason it wasn't until that exact moment when I realized that fan the rice meant to fan the rice with the paper plate given to us.

And then to top it all off, at the end of the class the instructor gave Caton and I all the leftover nori sheets, rice, and fillings to make our own sushi.

So.....who's coming over for sushi?